Insects, their abundance and diversity

Dr. PRABHURAJ. A
Professor of Entomology
UAS, Raichur, Karnataka

Insects, their abundance and diversity

Insects as a group are highly successful organisms.
(a) Their tremendous success relative to organisms other
than human beings
(b) Their extreme importance from the human point of
view.

Success on the universe

One of the yard stick for their success is the number of
extant species.
Insects probably outnumber all the other species of
animals and all the species of plants combined.

It is believed that there are nearly 10 million species of

insects existing on the earth and out of which we
know only 1 million.
The adaptability of the insects has been phenomenal.
Insects can be found in nearly every conceivable
terrestrial habit.

How many Insects ?

Compared to other life forms
Flowering plants,
290000

Monera, 4600

Viruses, 1100
Fungi, 66000
Algae, 26900
Protozoa, 30000
Porifera, 5000
Echinodermata, 6100
Platyhelmenthis,
12200
Nematoda, 15000
Annelida, 9000
Mollusca, 50000
Coelenterata, 9000

Insects, 1000000

Onychophora, 110
Myriapoda, 88000
Fishes, 19000

Crustacea, 42000
Arachnida, 60000

Amphibians, 4200
Collembola, 6000
Reptiles, 6300

Protura, 500
Mammals, 4000

Birds, 9000

Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Section has

five basic premises which very well fits to insects.
1. Many more individuals are born in each generation than will
survive and reproduce (natality)
2. There is variation among individuals; they are not identical in
all their characteristics. (variability)
3. Individuals with certain characteristics have a better chance of
surviving and reproducing than individuals with other
characteristics (survivorship)
4. At least some of the characteristics resulting in differential
reproduction are caused by have different genes. (heritability)
5. Enormous spans of time available for slow, gradual change.
(Time)

REMEMBER: Insects, as a taxon, have long inhabited this

planet!!!!

TIME EVENTS OF NOTE

Earth 4.5 billion years old

Precambrian: 3.1 billion, single celled organisms,

bacteria et alia assorted prokaryotes

Cambrian

:600 mya (million years ago), 1st period of

Silurian

:425 mya, invasion of land by arthropods

Devonian

:405 mya, first true insects

Carboniferous :345 mya, first great radiation of insects

Cretaceous :135 mya, second great radiation of insects

Tertiary

Quaternary :2 mya, first Homo sp.

abundant fossils (metazoans)

:63 mya, dominance of the land by mammals,

birds, & insects

544 mya

345 mya

248 mya

Palaeozoic

Cambrian

65 mya

Mesozoic

Cenozoic

Trilobites
Celicerata
Crustacea
Insects
Myriapoda
Mammals
Man
Lizards
Dinosaurs
Birds
mya : Million Years Ago

INSECT MACROEVOLUTION - THE DEFINING EVENTS

1) Appearance of primitive, wingless insects!!! The
APTERYGOTES (Devonian Period: ca. 400 million
years ago)

2) Development of Wings!!! The PTERYGOTES

(Late Devonian to Lower Carboniferous Period: 350 million
years ago)

Primitive Winged Insects or PALEOPTEROUS

insects with simple wing articulation - at rest held
out from body (Odonata and Ephemeroptera)

3) Development of the WING-FLEXION mechanism!!!! - Allows

exploitation of terrestrial habitats (niches) and more efficient
escape from predators. NEOPTEROUS (Lower Carboniferous
Period: 300 million years ago).
Today NEOPTEROUS insects comprise the majority of insect
orders and 97% of species.

Arthropods= Insects and their relatives

arthro = Joint or segment; poda= legs

Segmented body
Paired, segmented appendages
Bilateral symmetry
A chitinous exoskeleton (periodically sheds)
Open circulatory system
Pseudocoelom

Hexapoda (= Insecta)

Body divided into three regions

Insect -characters

Three sets of legs

Insect -characters

One pair of antennae

Insect -characters

Wings